


If I Could Turn Back Time

by Thedaggerthoo



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Auror Partners, But Harry's in 1980 so good luck with that, Clubbing, Gay Sex, Ginny wants to get married, M/M, Shopping, Theres only one bed?!?!?, Time Turner, Versatile Draco Malfoy, Versatile Harry Potter, roller skating, tags are difficult, time leap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:33:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28653561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thedaggerthoo/pseuds/Thedaggerthoo
Summary: After finding out Draco Malfoy was his newly assigned Auror partner, Harry thought his life couldn’t get any worse. However, he was soon to be proved wrong by Draco’s ability to turn situations from bad to absolutely terrible.Following a tangle with a tampered time turner, the two find themselves stuck in 1980 with nothing but each other, a peculiar fashion sense, a tiny apartment, and a constant urge to chuck the other out of the nearest window
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley
Comments: 13
Kudos: 38





	1. You have a Lot of Time On Your Hands

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey,
> 
> I haven't written anything for a while, but I've had this saved on my laptop forever and never ended up posting it. 
> 
> But here we go, I still have a bit more to write but it should come out to be about 40,000 words-ish. 
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy :)

“You want me to be partners with _Draco Malfoy_!” Harry exclaimed; mouth agape as he slammed his hand down onto Kingsley’s desk.

Harry could hardly believe Kingsley’s cheek. Sure, he’d been desperate for a partner the past month, but _this_ … this was definitely not what he wanted.

“Don’t take that tone with me. I believe you two would make a good team-“

“A good team my arse!”

“Language, Harry!” Kingsley scolded, his voice rising a semi-tone. Harry silenced and collapsed down onto the chair opposite Kingsley’s desk. Despite Kingsley’s raised voice, Harry could see an apologetic glint in his eye. “I know that you and Draco have… history. But you’re a grown man, and not to mention, an extremely skilled and well-trained Auror, I would’ve thought that you would be able to put your history behind you.”

“ _I_ could put our history behind myself, but have you met Malfoy? He’s a bloody git. I’m shocked he even passed the Auror training course.” Harry complained, waving his hands around in annoyance. “I mean, could you not find someone that doesn’t already hate him to be his partner?”

Kingsley sighed.

“In all honestly, Harry, I don’t want anyone else to be his partner. We both know that Draco can be a bit volatile, to say the least, but you’re the best Auror in our team. I wouldn’t trust him with anyone else. I want him to be in safe hands.” Kingsley reasoned, trying to pull compliance from Harry, but Harry wasn’t having any of it.

“Malfoy’s a big boy, I’m sure he can handle himself.” Kingsley’s face contorted, he seemed quite desperate now. “I’ll give you a pay rise if necessary?”

“A pay rise? You must be desperate for this.” Harry paused, “In fact, why are you so desperate?”

Kingsley’s body flexed uncomfortably, his eyes not meeting Harry’s.

“Did he pay you to let him join the Aurors?” At this Kingsley showed a look of ‘really? I thought you were smarter than that.’

“Of course not, Draco hasn’t had a knut to his name since Lucius was sent to Azkaban.”

“Okay ... Why are you so desperate to have him join, then?”

Kingsley cautiously looked around the room, before using his fingers to sign Harry to come in a bit closer. In a quiet voice he explained, “His mother is in st. Mungos, she’s very ill. Draco needs the money to pay for her treatment. Normally, I wouldn’t do this but… in exceptional circumstances…”

Harry heart sunk with an inkling of sympathy. Whilst Malfoy was a prat, since the war, he had always had a soft spot for Narcissa.

“I see.”

“Because of this, he hasn’t necessarily gone through all the procedures to be a fully qualified Auror, therefore I want him to work with the best Auror we have here, who just so happens to be you.” Harry mulled over the thought in his head, Kingsley’s reasoning made sense and he was sympathetic for Malfoy’s position but… The idea of working with the blond made him cringe.

“And you couldn’t just pass him over to the ministry?”

“There’s no free jobs there to pass over to him, most of them don’t pay enough anyways.”

Harry regarded Kingsley with a contemplative expression.

“So, will you take Draco?”

With one last look to the side of the room with reluctance, Harry gave Kingsley a small nod.

“Lovely.” Kingsley smiled, reaching under the desk, “Well, he’ll be here in twenty minutes, so here’s your first case. Don’t worry, it’s simple enough really.”

He thrusted a small case file into Harry’s hands.

“Read through that and you can apparate there as soon as Malfoy arrives.”

Harry nodded, and lifted himself from the creaky office chair, leaving Kingsley’s office to walk to his own.

Today was going to be a long day.

-

Surprisingly, Malfoy’s arrival had been far smoother than expected. He had entered Harry’s office and timidly sat down opposite him, not saying a word, and waiting for Harry to introduce himself.

“Malfoy.” Harry nodded towards the man, who now looked up at Harry, straightening out his posture.

Malfoy looked different to the last time Harry had seen him, but exactly the same simultaneously. His face had lost some of the excessive sharpness it held when they were teenagers and was instead a nice balance between pointy and soft. His shoulders were broad but still lean, now reflecting the body of a man and not a child. The rest of him, however, was exactly the same. The same fine, platinum hair and icy eyes. Harry took a second to wonder whether Malfoy could see a difference in Harry’s face since the last time he’d seen him.

“Is that our case?” Draco asked, pointing to the file in front of him.

“Well done, Sherlock.” Harry retorted sarcastically.

Suddenly, Malfoy’s signature scowl coated his features, reminding Harry far more of the schoolboy he’d been a rival of.

“Real mature, Potter.” Draco glared, moving his fringe out of his eyes with one long finger.

Harry scoffed. “Out of us two, I’m the mature one, okay?”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.” Harry felt his ears burn. He didn’t even know why he was acting so immature. Maybe seeing Malfoy again had brought back some old, repressed memories.

“Just, shut it, ferret.” Malfoy’s eyebrows raised.

“I thought you would’ve grown out of schoolboy insults by now.”

Harry glared, even though he completely agreed with Malfoy.

“Whatever, here is our case. Read through it quickly, I’ll apparate us up there in five minutes.” Harry explained, returning to his paperwork. Grimacing at how scratchy his handwriting looked on the page.

Out of his peripheral vision, Harry saw Malfoy shuffle a wooden glasses case out of his bag, opening the hinges to reveal a pair of thin, wire, golden glasses. Harry snickered at the irony.

“What?” Malfoy questioned, placing the frames atop his nose.

“A Malfoy in glasses, I would’ve thought that would’ve gone against some old, pure-blood family rule.” Malfoy’s eyebrows furrowed.

“My father wouldn’t have approved, but that’s not a problem anymore, I suppose.”

The air in the room was suddenly thick. _Why couldn’t Harry have just shut his stupid mouth?_

Harry returned to his paperwork, deciding to ignore the awkward atmosphere created by the mention of Lucius. But he couldn’t seem to stop his eyes from flickering up to Malfoy’s face every few seconds. The glasses were actually quite… dashing.

They suited Malfoy’s face, in an unexpected way, the gold brought out warmer tones in the blond’s eyes, making them appear more of a bright blue than the usual stale grey.

After five minutes or so of stealing glances at Malfoy, he took the frames off his face and closed the case file. Harry studiously kept his eyes on his paperwork during this.

“Well, the case seems simple enough.” Draco announced.

Which it was, the case was just a clearance of an old alley, which housed a peculiarly high intensity of magical energy, despite appearing as a normal alleyway. Harry expected that a few magical artifacts were likely being hidden in the rubbish bins against the wall.

“Let’s get going then.” Harry stood up, offering his arm out for a side-along.

“It’s alright, I can apparate myself.” Malfoy stood, disappearing from Harry’s eyes with a crack. Harry frowned at the rejection before following behind.

After a second, they were both stood at the end of the dark alleyway, Draco a few steps ahead of Harry.

There were two large bins pushed up against the wall of the alley, adjacent to a dead end, Harry could see a wire fence, with a few carboard boxes piled up next to them.

“Looks like a riveting mission. Where should we start?” Malfoy asked, quickly approaching the bins.

“Don’t go near that bin, I need to run a few checks before you go in there.” Harry warned, watching as Draco continued to approach it.

“What sort of checks?” Draco asked, opening the lid of the bin.

“Get away from there, Malfoy.” Harry sighed.

“It’s just a bin, what’d the worst that could happen?” As Malfoy lifted his arm to the opening, a wave of annoyance flew over Harry.

“I told you to get away!” Harry scolded, storming towards Malfoy in annoyance. He grabbed the man by the shoulder and shoved.

“Hey! What the fuck, Potter!”

“I told you to stay away, it’s dangerous!”

Malfoy rolled his eyes and turned around, “Fine, whatever.”

Harry closed his eyes, pointedly ignoring Malfoy as he ran a dark-magic detection spell over the bin. He wound the dark string of magic around it, feeling out for any possible anomaly.

Unsurprisingly, he felt nothing.

“Okay, it’s safe from dark magic.” Harry confirmed to the impatient Malfoy, who was currently bouncing his foot up and down on the floor.

“You need to run any other checks?”

Whilst, according to the Auror handbook, Harry should really conduct about five more checks, these cases usually turned out to be nothing, and he didn’t really want to waste the time and effort on them. Especially with the pressure of Malfoy’s eyes carving a hole into his back.

“No, you should be fine.” Harry confirmed, watching from a metre away as Malfoy re-approached the bin.

The blond glanced at Harry one last time for confirmation, Harry nodded and took a step closer as Malfoy looked inside.

“Holy shit.” Draco muttered, reaching his other hand into the bin.

“What is it?” Harry took a step closer, now able to see inside.

Malfoy pulled his hand back out to reveal an in-perfect-condition time-turner.

“Woah.” Harry uttered, reaching out to grab it from Draco’s hand.

“Hey! Hands off.” Draco snatched it back. “What is this doing in the bin?” He dangled the watch from it’s chain, watching as it slowly span around.

“I haven’t seen one of them in years.”

“You’ve seen a time turner before?” Draco asked, looking at Harry suspiciously.

“Um… Kinda.” Harry thought back to them saving Buckbeak. Maybe he shouldn’t mention that to Malfoy. “It’s a long story.”

Malfoy accepted Harry’s reasoning with a small shrug.

Harry reached past him to look further into the bin. “Wait, shit! What the fuck!”

Harry coiled back out of the bin to see what Malfoy was swearing at.

The time turner was speeding up in its rotation, tangling the chain all the way up to Draco’s fingers.

“What on earth?”

The hourglass began to glow golden, yellow, and red, sparks flickering off the glass as its rotations accelerated.

Draco attempted to stop the spinning by grabbing the timepiece with his hand. A horrific sizzling sound erupted, Malfoy screeched and clutched his wound, accidentally dropping the glass in the process. 

“Shit!” Harry shouted, collapsing down to catch the necklace before it shattered on the ground, but it slipped through his fingers, crashing into the concrete, and splitting into a thousand pieces. A flash erupted from the shattered turner, enveloping the two boys in its heat.

Within a second’s blink Harry felt his body chuck itself up into the atmosphere around him before instantaneously bouncing back on the ground, his chest colliding with the concrete floor of the alley.

“Ow!” He exclaimed, rolling onto his back, and clutching his rib cage in pain. He rolled into a ball, wating a minute or two for the pain to trickle away.

His eyes opened and he looked around. Everything looked the same, he let out a sigh of relief.

“What the hell was that?” He asked, sitting up, using his arms as a stand.

There was no response.

“Malfoy?” Harry looked around himself “Malfoy?”

He lifted himself from the ground and walked down to the bottom of the alley. Then back down to where he was sat. Had Malfoy run away?

He looked down to the ground to see some of the remnants of the time turner left on the floor. He bent down to pick them all up. But as he held them in his hand, he could see that there was no where near enough pieces to restore the time-turner.

_Oh well, it was cool whilst it lasted._

He sighed. _The paper work on this was going to drive him insane._

He tucked the pieces away into his pocket for safe keeping, he’d need to bring them back for examination.

_Now, where on earth was Malfoy?_

Harry frowned and tucked his head out of the alleyway, looking left and right. No Malfoy.

“What in Merlin.” Harry whispered, scratching his head.

He reached into his pocket for his wand, instead pulling out two halves of the wood.

“Really?” He mourned the loss of his wand before stepping back out into the lane.

Now, Harry wasn’t an observant man. He knew that. He’d known he had a weakness in his observational skills since the very start of Hogwarts. But he’d walked down this street a thousand times, and he certainly never remembered a barber’s shop on the corner. Or that petrol station. Or even the diner lit up with neon lights.

He walked down the pavement, suddenly aware that every person around him seemed to have a very peculiar fashion sense. He took particular notice of a tall man sporting double denim and his girlfriend who was wearing a neon pair of bell bottom pants with a curly perm.

Harry looked to the right of him to see a roller disco building blasting out Elton John.

Okay, that definitely wasn’t there last time Harry came through here.

In the distance Harry saw a newspaper store with a few copies laid out at the front deck. He jogged up there, apologising to a few muggles he knocked into. Once he arrived, he picked up the paper.

**_QUEEN’S NEW RELEASE HITS NO 2 IN THE UK TOP 100 CHARTS_ **

_What?_ But Queen hadn’t released a song in, like, fifteen years.

Harry’s heart dropped.

His eyes shot up to the date in the top-right corner of the page.

**_10 th October 1977_ **

Well…

_Shit._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is the introduction, it is far shorter than a normal chapter so don't worry, upcoming updates are far more substantial. 
> 
> I'm not sure what upload schedules will be like but I imagine not too long considering lockdown. I'm thinking every Saturday. hm.
> 
> What do we thinks so far?


	2. My Father Will Hear About This

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have officially decided updates every saturday. :)
> 
> Hope you enjoy

**_2 years, 6 months and 10 days later._ **

Harry rubbed his eyes at the sun streaming viciously through his moth holed curtains, straining his hardly adjusted pupils at the sudden light. He admired the way it lit up the dust particles for a few moments in his sleepy haze.

After a minute or so he dragged himself out of bed, moving to the other side of his ridiculously small studio apartment flat – also known as his kitchen – and began making himself a fresh cup of black coffee. He yawned as he stirred the coffee pot, willing the drowsiness to leave his eyelids.

He picked the Sunday newspaper up from his door and quickly scanned the new headlines.

Something about Margret Thatcher, another about home sales and a few ads for women’s lingerie.

Nothing particularly interesting then.

Harry sighed and decided to get dressed. Luckily as it was a Sunday, he didn’t have to go to work until 12pm, so he’d let himself sleep in.

He groggily glanced over to the clock.

11:50 am

Harry’s eyes blew wide. He knew he’d slept in, but not by that much.

He chucked on a black shirt and trousers before running down his staircase and reaching the barber shop in record time. He blasted through the doors mildly out of breath and with far too much energy. It caused Stephanie -the new and slightly too sassy receptionist- to raise one eyebrow at Harry as she loudly chewed her gum.

“You alright there?” She dropped her eyes back down to the magazine she was reading, not listening out for Harry’s answer.

“Charming.”

“That’s nice.”

Harry moved over to his hair dressing station and caught sight of himself in the mirror. God, he looked a state.

“I would recommend you sort your hair out before the shop opens.” Stephanie piped up.

“What time is it?”

“You have two minutes.”

“Great.”

Harry set to the treacherous task of fixing his hair, whilst his black locks were always a mess whenever he woke up, since getting a job at the barbers, he’d managed to learn how to tame it and (in his opinion) it looked pretty darn good now. Who would’ve guessed that muggle hair gels would work miles better than any hair spell he’d ever used?

Not that he’d used magic at any point in the past two years. He’d decided to stop using it since he got here and he’d never felt freer in his entire life, everything he earned felt real. He had done everything with his mind and on his own, no extra help from spells. It made him proud, for once. However, he still carried his repaired wand around with him at all times; old habits die hard.

His hair was fixed in perfect time for the first customer to walk through the door and book his appointment with Stephanie. Within a few minutes, he was sat in front of Harry and telling him everything he wanted done.

“Can I have trim on the top, but keep it long, and just smooth out the sides, please.” The man asked, Harry nodded. “Oh, and can you make sure the cut is really even? The last guy I went to cut it so bad.”

“Yeah, that’s cool. They don’t call me Hairy Potter for nothing”

Harry let his mind wonder as he cut. He looked out of the window and saw the old alleyway he’d appeared in two and a half years ago. He smiled thinking back to the first few months. But now that he was settled, he’d never been happier.

Here, he wasn’t famous, he could go anywhere he wanted without being stopped and asked to give out his signature. He found it odd how quickly he’d adjusted, especially considering how settled he was back in his time. He was about to marry Ginny for Merlin’s sake, and he felt horrible for saying it, but getting stuck 25 years in the past gave him a sick sense of relief. He didn’t really even want to marry Ginny; he’d been convinced to do it out of obligation more than anything.

He did miss Ron and Hermione a lot, though. He never let himself think about them too much, after all, he didn’t exactly have a way to get back to them. So, what was the point?

_Then there was Malfoy._

The first few months he was here, he’d attempted to look for the man, despite his dislike of him. He was so desperate to see a familiar face, he would’ve done anything to find him. But alas, Malfoy was no where to be found.

Which left the question of, where in the hell was Malfoy? It’s possible that Malfoy was left in 2000s but considering how big the light burst from the time turner was, Harry suspected Malfoy was also lost at some random point in time. He sometimes amused himself by imagining Malfoy as a pig farmer in the 1600s.

A loud crash from across the street pulled him out of his thoughts. He paused in his cutting to look out of the window. _What the hell?_

“What was that?” The client asked, Harry shrugged his shoulders.

“Probably nothing to worry about.” Harry turned back to the client’s head only to be interrupted once again when a yellow beam shot out from across the street.

“Was that lightening?” The man asked.

“Can’t be. There’s not even a cloud in sight today.”

There was a sudden scream and now Harry was intrigued. He moved over to stand right up against the window and stared down into the alley. Another beam shot out; Harry recognised it in an instant. That looked like a curse. It was magic. Which meant… _no way._

“Stephanie, finish his hair, I need to go check this out.” Harry said, halfway out of the door.

“I’m a receptionist.”

“Not my problem.”

Harry ran across the road towards the alley way, where, as he neared, he saw the silhouette of a lean, tall man. He ignored the general upset from the people around him who had no idea what was going on and strolled up to the alley, where he spotted a blond head of hair.

“Oh my God! Malfoy!” Harry shouted, shock radiating from his body in waves of glee. Malfoy turned around, suddenly cursing a white beam out of his wand directly into Harry’s chest.

Harry never thought he would be so happy to feel a stinging hex.

“What the fuck was that, Potter!” Malfoy screeched stomping over to Harry and pointing his wand at the man’s face. “What did you just do?”

“Malfoy, I can’t believe it’s you.” Harry rejoiced, ignoring the threat of a wand pointed directly at him.

“What are you talking about? What was wrong with that time turner?” Harry sat up on his arms, looking past Malfoy’s knee to see the other half of the time turner fragments left on the floor.

“Quickly! Pick those up!” Harry instructed, pushing himself up from the ground and scrabbling around to pick up as many loose ends as he could.

“Wha-“ Malfoy looked down to his Auror robes and then back up at Harry. “Did you… change clothes?” Malfoy asked, furrowing his eyebrows at Harry, “And get a haircut?”

“What?” Harry questioned, turning around. Only to realise that Malfoy was probably in the exact same situation as Harry was when he arrived here and likely had no idea what was happening. “Oh, of course… It’s hard to explain.”

“What’s hard to explain, Potter?” Harry looked down to the time turner pieces in his hand, the rest were in a jewellery box in his flat, he needed to bring these back.

Malfoy suddenly winced, dropping his wand out of his hand onto the floor.

“What is it?” Harry asked, looking down the man’s hand, where he saw a nasty looking, blistered burn running across his palm. “Oh Merlin, that doesn’t look good.”

“No shit, Potter.” Malfoy bent down, picking up his wand with his non-injured hand.

Harry took a step closer, reaching out to grab Malfoy’s hand, but the man quickly ripped it away. Harry shot him a stern look, making Malfoy roll his eyes and present his hand out.

Harry winced.

“This needs to be wrapped up.” He looked around himself, considering the amount of upset in the street outside, Harry expected the police to arrive in about five minutes. “Look we’ve got to go; I have a first aid kit in my flat. I’ll wrap it up for you.”

“Your house is bloody miles away, Potter, and I’m not in the mood to speak to the Weaselette. Let’s just pop into St. Mungos.”

“Yeah that’s not really possible right now.” Harry looked around himself, he could distantly hear some police sirens. “C’mon, just follow me, we need to go.”

Harry turned and led Malfoy across the road, ignoring the gaggle of confused muggles staring at him.

“Um… There was an electricity short circuit!” Harry shouted back at them, hoping that explained the beams. He turned around to see Malfoy still stood in the alley behind him. “Come on Malfoy!”

Malfoy seemed to turn back on and caught up with Harry across the road, where he took them into his flat block and within five minutes, Harry was unlocking the door.

“I still have no idea what the hell is going on, Potter, and I’d like to know.”

Harry unlocked his door and pointed to his bed. “Take a seat.” Malfoy gave the bed a judging look before begrudgingly sitting down on it. “What is this place? It’s very… quaint.”

“It’s my apartment.” Harry explained, dropping the left-over time turner pieces into the jewellery box and grabbing the first-aid kit from the cupboard under the sink.

“No it’s not.”

“That’s where this whole mess gets complicated.”

Harry pulled some ice cubes from his fridge and wrapped them with a tea towel. “Hold this on your hand for a few minutes.

Malfoy winced as the scratchy fabric touched his burn, but he quickly schooled his pained features.

“Can you please explain what’s happening?”

Harry pulled some burn lotion out of his kit and chucked it over to Malfoy. “Rub that on when your ready.” He walked over to the kitchen counter and lifted himself up, placing his bum on the wood. “Basically, you’re in nineteen eighty.”

It took approximately five minutes for Harry to explain the current situation they were stuck in and a further thirty minutes of Malfoy asking the same question over and over again before he seemed to come to grips with whatever was happening.

“So you’re telling me, I’m in 1980?”

“Yes.”

“And you have already been here for three years?”

“Well, two years, six months and… ten days.”

“Right… And have you made any attempt to get back home?”

“Obviously.” Harry rolled his eyes, pulling a biscuit out of the jar behind him. “But I didn’t have the chance to until you got here today.” Harry turned around to pick up the jewellery box. “When I got here three years ago, I only had half the time turner, but when you got here today. The other half came with you.”

“So, we can go back?” Malfoy asked.

“Not exactly.” Harry opened the box, revealing the fragments to Malfoy. Malfoy’s face immediately grimaced.

“Can we not use another time turner?”

“Do you know how hard those are to find?” Harry explained, taking a bite of his digestive biscuit. “And even if we did find one, we could only safely travel 5 hours either side.”

Draco nodded.

“And I’m in 1980?”

“You’ve already asked that.”

“Right.”

Draco looked around himself.

“How did you get this apartment?”

“I work in the barber shop downstairs.”

“And we’re in 1980?”

Harry sighed. He needed to be sympathetic. He can hardly imagine he would’ve handled this information well when he first got here.

“Yes.”

“We have to find a way to get back. Now that we have all the time turner, there must be a way to get back.”

Harry scrunched his nose up and turned around towards the small window of his apartment. Looking out at the few police cars outside of the alleyway.

“Why are you not saying anything?”

Harry turned back around.

“Maybe I don’t want to go back, Malfoy.” Harry revealed. Malfoy’s mouth fell open and then closed again like a fish.

“You don’t want to go back?”

“I don’t”

“Are you insane, Potter?”

“Maybe.”

Malfoy couldn’t hold back his shock, now shaking Harry by the shoulders. The movement didn’t have any effect on changing Harry’s mind.

“Why would you not want to go back? You have more money than a human needs, you’re the chosen one, far more liked than you should be, and as I remember – if the prophet was correct – you were about to marry the Weaselette. You had literally everything.”

Harry sighed.

“I like it here. I like being on my own, no one recognising me, being able to work for my money. It’s a fresh start. I’ve never been happier.” Draco’s face furrowed.

“What about the Weaselette?”

Harry hung his head low.

“Maybe we weren’t as perfect as everyone thought.” Malfoy’s head dipped to the side and for a moment, Harry swore he saw an ounce of sympathy, but Malfoy skilfully schooled his features with ease.

“Whether or not, you want to go home, I’m going back.” Draco commanded. 

“Why do you want to go back there, Malfoy? Do you not want a fresh start?” Harry asked, leaning closer to the man, who quickly leaned back, “I mean as far as I remember, your life isn’t great.”

Malfoy covered the shame on his face quickly.

“I want to go home.”

“Why not just spend a few months here? See how you feel.” Harry bargained.

“No. I know I would never want to stay here.”

“Can you not just give it a bit of time here? I really don’t want to go back.” Harry suggested, watching as Malfoy rubbed his temples with his fingers.

“I thought you hated me. Why would you even want me to stay?”

Harry looked down to his hands and wrapped them around each other.

“Whether I hate you or not, you are the only thing from my old life I’ve seen in the past three years. Meaning that currently, you are the only thing proving to me I’m not insane and didn’t dream it all. Anyways, we could always start over. Call a truce? Be friends?” 

Malfoy crunched his nose up.

“Stop with all that soppy shit, Potter.” Harry felt the tips of his ears heat up. Malfoy paused. “Look, you don’t understand. I _need_ to go home.”

“Why? What do you have there that’s worth it?”

Draco sighed.

“I mean there’s my mum… and…”

“See. You can’t think of anything else.” Harry pointed out. Malfoy took a deep breath.

“I have a son.”

“You what?” Harry’s eyes shot wide. _He had a what now? And how didn’t Harry know?_ _Surely someone would’ve told him?_ He thought back and couldn’t remember seeing it in the Prophet (even though he didn’t read it) and he didn’t even know Malfoy had had a wife.

“I have a son, he’s four years old. I can’t leave him there.”

Harry’s heart sunk like a rock.

“How come I never knew?”

“I kept him out of the limelight, I didn’t want him to be associated with me. I didn’t want him to be hated just because of his father.” Harry frowned at the reality of it. He’d lived as a hero ever since the war, he couldn’t imagine what Malfoy had to deal with after fighting for the dark side.

“What’s he called?” Harry was tempted to put his hand of Malfoy’s knee for comfort, or maybe give him a hug, but ice radiated from Malfoy as he covered himself up with his arms.

“Scorpius Black.” He whispered

“Black?”

“Malfoy made it all a bit obvious.”

“Could he not take his mother’s name?”

At that, Malfoy let out a puff of air, using his left hand to stroke his own arm in a comforting gesture.

“He was born out of wedlock.” Harry gasped. “His mother was a woman I’d had a fling with in France just after the war. Only women I’d ever been near, and of course she got pregnant from the one night I’d spent with her, I’d only known her for thirty hours, maximum. Then nine months later, she knocks on my door and tells me we have a son, and that her family refuses for her to keep him.”

“God, I’m so sorry, Malfoy.” Harry placed his hand on Malfoy’s shoulder, Draco leaned into it for a second before shrugging it off.

“Don’t get me wrong, my son is the best thing to ever happen to me. But it was a bit of a shock.”

“I can imagine.”

The two sat in silence for a moment before Malfoy spoke up again.

“So, do you see why I need to get back, now?”

Harry solemnly nodded. He couldn’t not help Malfoy after that.

“Fine. I’ll help you get home. But I’m staying here.”

Malfoy’s back straightened up, but there was a glint of sadness in his eyes.

“Thank you, Harry.”

Harry bristled at the use of his first name. He hadn’t heard Malfoy ever used it. It sent shivers up his spine.

“Don’t thank me yet, I don’t even know how to get back.”

Draco’s eyebrows flexed in thought. “Can you pass me that bandage?”

Harry passed over the white bandage wrap and watched as Malfoy wrapped his hand up. Now that Harry thought about it, Malfoy had taken the news of being blasted back in time very well, he was composed and rational, Harry was insistent that he was just dreaming or that the whole world was playing some sick prank on him for the first three months he was stuck.

“If the date is April of 1980 then neither of us will be born yet, correct?” Malfoy spoke up. Harry nodded quickly, not thinking to question why he knew Malfoy’s birthday by heart. “Which means that my Father should be about twenty-five.”

Harry looked to the ceiling. “I suppose so… Where are you going with this, Malfoy?”

“My father used to own a time-turner, he spent a few years studying them, I’m sure if we found him then he could help us.”

Harry’s mouth dropped open _, why hadn’t he thought of that?_ How had he lived here for two and a half years and hadn’t thought of that?

“Malfoy, that’s brilliant!”

A small smile coated Malfoy’s lips.

“I know.”

“Well, where would your Father be?” Harry asked. 

“If he’s twenty-five, then he should already have married Mother. I can imagine she would be pregnant with me, currently.” He explained. “And since it’s a Sunday, they both should still be in the Manor.”

“Okay. The manor. That’s easy enough… How do you propose we get there?”

“We can apparate outside. I should just be able to walk up to the door. The wards are set to recognise Malfoy blood.”

“And what if they don’t?”

“They will. They were made hundreds of years ago.”

Harry nodded, watching as Malfoy tied a knot on the end of his bandage.

“And hopefully, Lucius believes us.”

“I can’t imagine he wouldn’t. I look exactly like every Malfoy to ever exist; it would be hard to not believe after I easily walk through the wards.”

“And what about me?”

At this, the blond did take a moment to consider the options.

“I can just say you are my partner at work, he has no reason to know who you are.”

Harry nodded, it’d be weird to see Lucius and for the man to not treat him with contempt for once.

Harry wondered how hard this was for Draco. Or how hard it was going to be to see his father again

“Take the time turner, lets go down to the apparition point, we might even catch him during his lunch break if we get there fast enough.”

-

A set of large, black gate lined the driveway, intimidating in their size, with intricate carvings coating the metal. Draco gulped as he stared up at them.

“Haven’t been here in a while.” Harry announced, reaching one hand out to touch the gate.

“I bloody hate it here.” Malfoy admitted, with a strained voice. “You have the time tuner?”

Harry lifted up the jewellery box and shook it a bit.

“Good.”

Malfoy took a step closer to the gate and sighed.

“Here goes nothing.” He closed his eyes and pressed his hand to the gate lock, after a second of silence the gate creaked and shifted, the intricate carvings moulding to slowly open up for Malfoy.

“I don’t remember this.”

“They changed the gate when I was young. Took too long to get back and forth.”

Soon enough the gate was open, and Malfoy calmly stepped inside, regarding a peacock on the green for a moment before continuing along the stone pathway towards the house. Harry followed behind swiftly.

The lines of bushes towards the house were well maintained and trimmed, a few had lights sprinkled among them with small huts for the animals on the green to rest in. It was a far cry from the now abandoned Malfoy manor in the 21st century.

It looked like a lovely place to live.

“Are you just going to knock on the door?” Harry asked, wondering if there were any other procedures to get in the manor.

“How else do you propose I get in?”

Harry shrugged.

Malfoy squared his shoulders as he approached the door and cleared his throat before lifting his fist to the door. Knocking on the heavy wood three times.

The house watched on in silence.

Malfoy knocked again.

This time, they were rewarded by the click click click of what must’ve been ten locks being undone. The door slithered open to reveal a small house elf, in a pillowcase. Harry choked. It was Dobby.

“Hello Dobby.” Draco greeted the elf, who looked at him in confusion.

“May Dobby ask you name, sir?” Harry felt like crying at the elves voice.

He had held Dobby as he’d died. He’d buried the elf. But here he was, standing right in front of him. Harry couldn’t help himself but fall down and wrap his arms around Dobby, clutching onto his small body. Harry rejoiced at the feeling of his fragile body in his arms

“I demand you get off dobby right this second!” He disappeared with a crack and suddenly appeared the opposite side of Harry and bit down on his forearm.

“Ow!” Harry screeched, throwing Dobby off and wrapping his hand around the bite mark. “What was that for?”

“You are not allowed to touch Dobby! Dobby is property of the Malfoy family, and must not be touched!” He scolded, punctuating his sentence with a slap to Harry’s hand, it wasn’t very hard, but pushed the message anyways.

“Dobby, I would like to request the presence of Lucius Malfoy.” Draco calmly asked, ignoring Harry’s bewildered state.

“Lucius Malfoy is busy; he does not wish to see you.” Dobby explained, suddenly slamming the door in Malfoy’s face. Malfoy stared at the door in shock.

“Well done you blithering idiot, we won’t be allowed in now!” Malfoy cursed, knocking hard on the door again. “You can’t react like that to someone you know! It irrational and not to mention awfully plebeian.”

Harry stared at the oakwood door, he doesn’t know what he’d expected to happen, of course Dobby wouldn’t hug him back. Dobby hasn’t even met Harry before. Harry doesn’t even exist yet.

“Please!” Malfoy shouted, knocking harder on the door. “It’s Draco! Draco Malfoy!”

Harry rolled his eyes, as if that was going to work-

The door creaked open a second time to reveal the face of Narcissa, looking at the two boys from a crack in the door.

“What did you say your name was?” Narcissa asked, Draco cleared his throat.

“I’m Draco Malfoy, and I need to speak to my Father.” Narcissa opened the door further, showing her pregnant stomach.

“You wish to see Lucius?” She asked, clutching onto her stomach.

“Yes.” She closed the door behind herself and he could hear her footsteps walking back into the manor.

“Do you think she knows who you are?” Harry asked. Draco tutted.

“Obviously.”

“She didn’t show it.”

“What did you expect her to do?” Draco raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t know, I’d be quite surprised if I saw my unborn son in front of me.”

“She’s seen worse.”

The door reopened to reveal the tall body of Lucius. Harry was almost shocked at quite how much he looked like Draco, his hair wasn’t as short, it was about chin length, but his features didn’t have the same softness as Draco’s. He looked far more unforgiving.

“Hello, father.”

“Name?”

“Draco Malfoy.” He repeated.

“Narcissa hasn’t gone crazy, then. May I ask why you’re on my doorstep?”

Draco nudged Harry’s elbow, he took the prompt and lifted up the jewellery box, opening it to reveal the shattered time turner. Lucius curiously looked into the box, his mouth opening slightly.

“Hmm, I see. You boys best come in. I’ll get the elf to make some tea.”

-

Lucius’ office was traditional, exactly how you would expect it to be. There was a large wooden desk in the centre, candle lit by a single light and three comfy armchairs that surrounded a small coffee table, where the teapot was currently brewing. Lucius was looking at the jewellery box behind his desk.

“I have to be honest; this doesn’t look good.” Lucius explained, moving his finger to wrap around the small hourglass, “But luckily, the hourglass is still intact. The sand within it is what contains the time magic, without it, you would have no chance of getting back.”

“So, you can fix it?” Malfoy asked. Lucius crunched his nose in a very un-Lucius like manner.

“Maybe. What year are you trying to get back to?”

“2004.” Lucius gulped.

“Merlin, that’s quite the jump.” Harry wasn’t comforted by the panicked look on his face.

“If you can fix it, will we even be able to go forward that far?” Harry asked, causing Lucius to curiously glance over to him. Harry hadn’t said a word since he’d arrived.

“Who knows… What’s your name?” 

“I don’t think it would be a good idea for you to know, Father.” Draco spoke up, just a second before Harry answered.

“Why not?”

“If you knew, it could affect your future actions. I wouldn’t want to swing anything.” Draco explained.

“At least I’m going to have a smart son. But no genius.”

Draco spluttered. “What?”

Lucius rolled his eyes, looking so much like Malfoy that Harry had to do a double take. “You are going to have to obliviate me after I fix your whole problem.”

“You want me to obliviate you?”

“Do you really think I’d be able to continue my life exactly the same after meeting my own unborn son?” Lucius questioned. “Just to be safe, you will have obliviate me… Can you?”

Draco looked down and around him, “I’m not great…”

“I can do it.” Harry spoke up, Lucius looked Harry up and down.

“I don’t know who you are, I wouldn’t trust you that easily.” Lucius pointed out, in a very Slytherin manner.

“I’m a fully trained Auror, I’ve obliviated hundreds of muggles before.” Lucius looked over to Malfoy.

“Do you trust him?” He asked, making Malfoy’s eyes flicker over to Harry, then back to his father.

“Yes.”

Lucius grumbled.

“Fine, he can do it. As long as I don’t remember meeting you. You’ll have to do it to Narcissa as well.”

Harry nodded.

“Two-thousand-and-four then, what’s it like where you’re from?”

The two boys answered “Crap.” And “Good.” In unison.

“Fair enough. How am I doing? Have I taken over the world yet?” Lucius joked, but Malfoy didn’t smile. “Oh Merlin, don’t tell me something horrible happens to me.”

“No nothing.” Malfoy began, “You still live with Mother at the Manor.” He showed Lucius a convincing smile.

“You got a wife?”

“I really don’t think we should talk about the future too much.” Harry jumped in; Malfoy gave him a thankful glance. “More things to obliviate.”

“I suppose you’re correct.” Lucius placed the jewellery box down onto the coffee table. “You’re incredibly lucky that you came back to this year. I only finished my time magic course last year. If you’d spelled back even five years ago, I would be useless.”

“Actually, my colleague here showed up two and a half years before me.” Draco explained.

“Really? A staggered time jump is exceedingly rare. Can you tell me a bit about what happened?” Lucius sat down opposite Harry.

“Umm… I was on an Auror case. We were clearing out an old alleyway, where we found the timepiece. Malfoy- um, sorry – Draco, picked it up and then suddenly it started spinning really quickly, and heated up until it was red. Then Draco touched it and dropped the time turner.”

Malfoy held up his bandaged hand for dramatic effect.

“There was this light flash and I felt like I’d been chucked up into the sky, then when I fell back down, I was in 1977.”

Lucius stood and then sat back on his desk, opening a hefty book titled “The Treacherous Guide to Time Magic.”

“How very curious.” The man tugged his finger down the page. “I studied a case a bit like yours during my course. It was only a time jump of a week, but it sounds similar.” Lucius expression shifted, “Ah! Here it is…According to this passage it appears the time turner was tampered with. Maybe it was being held as a ticking bomb to time jump someone away. I doubt it was made for the two of you though. I’m almost surprised that you didn’t rip apart the fabric of time itself with such a leap, but anything it possible.”

“If the time turner that got us here was tampered with, could you not just tamper with another time turner to take us back. I know they are rare but-“ Malfoy began.

“That wouldn’t be possible.” Lucius interrupted. “Time is very delicate and, the problem you currently face is, you would only be able to travel on a time turner that had not been used from 1977 all the way to 2004. If you travelled using one that had been used between those years, any time jumps it was used for would be reversed. Even if time turners weren’t as rare as they are, it would be impossible to know whether it had been used, unless if you time jumped an entire list of every time turner that had been used after 1977 with you. The effects of using a time turner that had been used between those two dates could be devastating.”

“Which means we have no option other than to travel back with the broken time turner?”

“The only other way to get back is to wait it out until you naturally age to 2004. However, you would look like fifty-year-old men, which is not ideal.”

Harry shivered at the idea of having to live through the wizarding war again. He would rather just keel over on the spot.

“How long will it take you to fix it?” Malfoy piped up.

“If I can fix it, I have no idea, it could take months, could only take a day. But for the moment, wait a week and come back then. I should have a solid time duration in mind by then.”

“Wait a whole week!” Malfoy squealed.

“Trust me, a week’s easy, I’ve been here two and a half years.” Harry informed; Malfoy gave him a scornful look.

“You can’t rush these things, son. I want you to get home in one piece.”

“Where am I going to stay?” Draco asked. “Can I stay here, in the Manor? I know you have enough rooms.”

“I’m afraid not, Draco. I must be obliviated by the end of this, along with Narcissa. If you stay with us, we would have too many memories of you to obliviate. We could end up brain dead if your friend obliviates us too much.”

Draco sighed in acceptance.

“Actually.” Lucius began. “Would it be possible for you to go obliviate Narcissa now? You won’t need to see her again, plus her memory of you will still be in short term for the next few hours. Removal would be easy.”

Malfoy’s face fell, his eyes going slightly puffy.

“Yeah, that’s okay.” He answered, schooling the dread off of his face.

“You can show yourself out.” Lucius added, looking closely at the time turner fragments.

“Yeah.” Malfoy uttered, turning out of the office. Harry swiftly following behind him. When the door was closed, Harry grabbed Malfoy’s arm.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. I’m fine… perfectly fine.”

Harry decided to leave him be.

“Mother.” Draco shouted down the hall. “Where would she be?” He muttered. “Narcissa! Cissy! Mother!”

Once they reached the end of the hall, Harry looked through one of the doors to see Narcissa’s pregnant form sat in the dining hall.

“Hello, Mummy.” Draco greeted, she turned around and upon meeting Draco’s eyes, a large smile casted across her face.

“Hello darling.” She walked towards the two boys and clutched onto Draco’s head, lifting her lips to kiss his forehead. “It’s lovely to meet you.” She smiled, wrapping her arms around Draco. Draco accepted the hug openly, dropping his head into her shoulder. Harry heard a few sad snuffles from Draco.

Harry was almost surprised to see the Malfoy family being so affectionate, for some reason, he’d always pictured them as distanced from each other and emotionally guarded, but instead, Harry could feel the love they felt for each other.

“Oh, Draco dear, are you crying?” She stroked Draco’s neck, comforting him with small pats.

“No… I just. I’m happy to see you again, Mummy.” Draco sniffled as he pulled away from her, watching her with puffy eyes before leaning forward and kissing her on the cheek. “I love you.”

“And I love you very much too, Draco.” She smiled. Draco let out a sad chuckle. “I hope you always know that.”

Harry felt like he was intruding on something very private. It didn’t feel like he should be in the room.

“And who is this?” Narcissa asked, stepping away from the blond and pointing at Harry. “Is he your partner?”

Harry’s eyes widened.

“Oh, no! We’re not like… dating.” Narcissa tilted her head to the side before laughing.

“Not dating, silly! I meant work partners!” She laughed; Harry looked over to Malfoy to see him looking just as bewildered. “Would you boys like a cup of tea and cake before you leave?”

Draco looked down to his feet.

“Actually, we can’t.” Harry apologised. “I’m sorry Narcissa, but I need to obliviate you. It wouldn’t be safe for you to remember us.”

Narcissa frowned slightly.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t have some cake.” 

-

The three of them sat around the end of the dining table as Dobby brought them a stack of cakes and pastries, along with freshly boiled tea. Narcissa and Draco spoke for about an hour before they had decided that the time to end the day had come.

Harry was surprised by how much he liked watching Narcissa and Draco talk. Draco was so open and unguarded around her that it was refreshing to watch, he didn’t once sarcastically correct her, or fire a snappy insult like Harry was so used to hearing.

“You best get it over with.”

Narcissa stood tall and closed her eyes. Draco’s lips wobbled.

“I’ll wait outside.” Malfoy said and quickly turned around, Harry went to stop him, but he was interrupted by Narcissa grabbing his arm.

“Let him go.” She said softly, “He doesn’t need to see this.”

Harry nodded and lifted his wand up to Narcissa’s forehead.

“You’re a good woman, Narcissa, and a great mother.” Harry complimented, preparing himself.

“Thank you.”

Narcissa closed her eyes again, and Harry stared at her eyelashes as he casted.

“Obliviate.”

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Draco :(
> 
> What we think so far?
> 
> Leave a comment, I like to read them :)


	3. Hairy Potter and the Straight Speculation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! 
> 
> Welcome to this Saturdays update, I hope you enjoy!!

The wind mussed Draco’s hair as he stood still as a stone on the doorstep of Malfoy manner. Harry carefully approached him from behind.

“You okay, Malfoy?” Harry asked, cautiously resting a hand on his shoulder. Malfoy leaned slightly into the touch.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Draco sighed. “It’s just hard to watch.”

Harry nodded.

Narcissa had taken the memory charm well, and Harry had brought her up to her bedroom to rest off her foggy head before he left.

“How about we head home now? It’s getting late.” Harry looked up to the sky. It must’ve been about nine pm already.

“Home?” Malfoy questioned.

“Back to my flat.”

“Oh… Yeah.”

The two boys walked side by side down to the bottom of the drive, where Malfoy closed the tall gate behind him.

“Side-along me?” Draco asked.

“Of course.” Harry presented his arm, revelling in the warmth of Draco’s touch as their arms interlocked.

Harry cleared his foggy mind and with a whip of magic, the two were stood in the centre of Harry’s flat.

“What now then?” Malfoy asked. His eyes drawn to the double bed in the corner.

“We don’t need to go to bed now. We can watch TV for a bit if you want?”

“No. I’m quite tired.” Malfoy’s eyes were glued to the bed. “Do you have a sleeping bag or couch or something?”

It suddenly hit Harry; he hadn’t thought through where Malfoy would sleep once they got back to the flat. He looked around himself, panicked. _Why hadn’t he been more organised and bought a spare pair of sheets?_

“I’ve never needed to have one before.” Harry looked at the bed. The _double_ bed, just about big enough for two _. Were they going to have to share-_

No.

That was _not_ happening.

Harry concluded that since half his childhood was spent sleeping in a cupboard, he could survive one night on the floor.

“It’s okay, you’ve had a long day, you can take the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

Malfoy shot Harry a disgusted stare.

“The floor?”

Harry nodded.

“I hate to say it, but it completely goes against Malfoy etiquette to let the house owner sleep on the floor.”

“I’m not going to let you sleep on the floor, Malfoy.”

“Obviously,” Malfoy rolled his eyes, “We’re grown men, Potter. I’m sure we can share a bed for one night.”

Harry gulped.

“You sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. Just, don’t come near me, okay?”

Malfoy looked down at himself, undoing the buttons on his shirt cuffs. “You got any spare pyjamas?”

_Spare pyjamas_. Now Malfoy was really asking something. Harry had always slept in his underwear, he’d never had the need for pyjamas, but he definitely didn’t want to be bare next to Malfoy. His cheeks painted pink at the thought of it.

“No, but I have a spare shirt you could use?”

“It will have to do.”

Malfoy looked at Harry expectantly, jogging Harry out of his daze and moving his feet to the wardrobe. He looked through the few shirts hung up in there. He reached in and pulled out a dark blue oversized shirt. He looked at it and then gave Malfoy a once over to see if it was the right size.

It was long on Harry, which meant it would probably hit Malfoy’s hip, but it would be very baggy on the man’s lean body. _Oh well._ It’d have to do.

“I think this is the best option I’ve got.” Harry chucked the shirt over to Malfoy, who’s eyes widened.

“No bottoms?” He asked. Harry looked back into the wardrobe.

“Umm…. Unless you want to go to bed wearing jeans, I’m afraid that’s the best you get.”

Malfoy clicked his tongue, walking into Harry’s bathroom to get changed.

Harry decided that it would probably be a good idea to put on a shirt if he was sharing a bed with Malfoy, he dived back into the wardrobe in a search.

The best shirt he could find for the situation was a baggy, red shirt. Harry chuckled at the Gryffindor red colour. Malfoy would definitely be disgusted.

He laid the shirt out on the bed and began removing his black button up and jeans. Once his button up was off, he heard Malfoy shout from the bathroom.

“Are you decent?”

Harry looked down at himself, he was only half dressed, but he was used to changing in the same room as other boys from back at Hogwarts, and the communal showers at the ministry. Maybe Malfoy wouldn’t appreciate his bare skin, but he’d thought Malfoy was being a bit overly cautious going into his bathroom to get dressed, anyways.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He shouted back, undoing the zipper of his trousers.

He heard the door open and then suddenly slam back shut.

“You are not decent, Potter! You are half-dressed!” He shouted.

“I’m not naked or anything.” He replied.

“Just put the bloody shirt on!” Harry rolled his eyes, pulled his jeans down the rest of his legs, and pulled the shirt over his torso. It landed just below the leg of his boxers.

“Okay, I’m dressed!”

Malfoy cautiously popped his head out of the bathroom, Harry faced him and waved down at his now dressed body.

“Better?” He asked, noticing how Malfoy’s eyes lingered on his exposed legs.

He was probably judging Harry’s knobbly knees. Harry felt insecurity crawling up his neck.

The blond stepped out of the bathroom, the shirt hit just above Malfoy’s hip, like Harry had thought, but his eyes were instantly drawn to the bulge just below the hem of the shirt. Harry quickly averted his eyes and turned around, hoping that Malfoy didn’t catch him eying up his crotch.

“Um.. So,” Harry coughed, “do you want left or right side?”

He heard the pat of Draco’s footsteps approach him.

“You can take the side next to the wall, I want to be able to escape if necessary.” Malfoy instructed, Harry couldn’t quite tell if he was joking or not.

“Okay then.” Harry replied and lifted up the bed sheet, pulling his body into the bed side. He laid on his side and stared at the wall as he felt the dip of Malfoy’s body in the bed. Even as Harry tried to lean away from Malfoy, leaving a gap in the bed between them, the man’s heat radiated over to him.

Malfoy reached to the bedside table and turned off the light, leaving them both in the dark.

“Good night, Potter.”

Harry nuzzled himself in closer to the wall when he felt the brush of Malfoy’s foot on his own. He was sure the other man was doing the same as Harry on the opposite side.

“Good night, Malfoy.”

Harry didn’t know how he was ever going to be able to sleep when Malfoy’s breathing was so loud. He tried to anyways, pushing his head into the pillow and shutting his eyes, his body rigid as a post.

“I’m not going to bite you, Potter. You can relax.”

Harry’s body was still rigid but softened into the bed a little more. After a few minutes he heard the lull of Malfoy’s breath slow and deepen. Was he asleep? He must’ve been.

Harry let his body settle further and emptied his brain, think of random nothings as his body drifted into sleep.

-

The light streaming in through the curtained window slowly woke him up. He cursed the sun, he felt so well rested that he didn’t want to wake up. He hadn’t woken up during the night, not even once, and that hadn’t happened since he’d gotten here three years ago.

And he felt so _warm_ and _content_ as his eyes drifted open, staring into the wall.

Except, he wasn’t staring into a wall, he was instead staring into a blond head of hair.

He jumped mildly when the realisation hit him. _Was he cuddling Draco Malfoy?_

Oh Merlin, he _was._

He looked down to see his arm wrapped over the man’s body and he could feel their legs intertwined with one another under the sheets. And most alarmingly he could feel the morning wood of his crotch nestled tightly up against Draco’s thigh.

His gaze rose back up to the man’s face, luckily, he looked to still be deep asleep, and Harry counted his blessings.

_Okay,_ how was he going to get out of this without waking Malfoy up?

His whole body bristled as he heard Malfoy begin to stir.

_Abort mission ! Abort mission ! Abort mission !_

Harry closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, hoping that it wasn’t completely obvious that he was awake. He heard Malfoy’s breath hitch for a moment and his head move to look at Harry. His breathing paused.

Harry held back a groan when Malfoy shuffled his leg, accidentally nudging Harry’s half-hard erection, which was now suddenly roaring up to life. Malfoy froze. _Great_ , now Malfoy knew about Harry’s little predicament. He hoped the man would just place it down as morning wood and not an erection from him. Which it was. Morning wood, that is. It definitely wasn’t because of being so close to Malfoy. _Definitely not._

“uhm… Potter?” Malfoy whispered, unlocking one of his arms from Harry’s hold to poke his cheek. Harry pretended to groggily wake up. “Potter.” Malfoy poked again.

“Yes?” Harry asked, pretending he hadn’t noticed their position. He had to say, he was fairly impressed with his own acting skills.

“Can you get off me?”

Harry looked down at their bodies and proceeded to jump away from him, accidentally slapping Malfoy in the process.

“What the fuck, Potter!” Malfoy brought a hand to his face, covering where Harry had slapped him.

“Oh Merlin, sorry, Malfoy.” Harry shuffled above the covers and attempted to get over Malfoy and off the bed.

He straddled one leg over the man’s torso, making Draco’s eyes suddenly shoot wide, Harry quickly realised his miscalculation and shakily shuffled back, away from Malfoy’s face, only to realised he was now sat on the man’s crotch.

“Potter!” Malfoy screeched, thrusting his pelvis up to push Harry off of him, causing Harry to collapse onto the floor.

“Ow!” Harry shouted, after the loud bang of his head meeting the floor sounded.

Malfoy’s head peeked over at him from the bed. “You really fucked that up.” Draco laughed. _At least he’d taken the situation well._

Harry couldn’t help but let a few chuckles leave his throat. “Sorry, I’ve got two left feet.”

Malfoy showed him a warm smile, it made Harry’s heart skip a beat. He snapped out of it and quickly pulled himself up from the ground, onto his feet. “I’ll go grab a shower.”

He was absolutely mortified when he looked back to Malfoy to see the man staring at Harry’s crotch. He looked down to see a large tent formed beneath the fabric of his t-shirt. Obscenely erecting the fabric out.

“Fuck.” Harry squealed, chucking his hands over his groin, and swiftly turning away into the bathroom.

He squeezed his eyes shut and banged his head on the shut door.

_Well done, Harry. You have just inadvertently shown Malfoy your hard dick. Good job, you are a fucking idiot._

Harry groaned with embarrassment, staring down at his traitorous body.

“Why does this always happen to me.” He whispered, swallowing his pride, and turning on the shower, putting the heat as low as it could possibly go. He refused to wank with Malfoy in the next room. So, his only other option was to will his erection away with icy cold water.

He jumped in the shower and was washed and back out within five minutes, when he realised, that in his rush to get away from Malfoy, he hadn’t brought any new clothes in with him. He groaned once again.

“Why, Merlin, why?” He muttered, looking down to his sopping wet t-shirt and underwear on the floor. “You are an idiot, Harry.”

He wrapped a towel around his hips and knocked on the bathroom door.

“Yes?” Malfoy answered.

“You might want to close your eyes, I kind of forgot to grab some fresh clothes to put on.”

“Oh.” He replied. “Okay, uhm, you can come out now, my eyes are closed.”

Harry cautiously pushed the door open to see Malfoy still under the sheets, but now with one hand covering his eyes. Harry let out a deep breath and walked over to his wardrobe where he pulled out his usual work clothes. A black shirt and black jeans, and a fresh pair of underwear.

“Okay, I’m just going to get changed now, can you keep your eyes closed?” Harry asked, turning back around to look at Malfoy, who still had his hand covering his eyes.

“Don’t worry, I won’t look.”

Harry dropped the towel with a soft thud and quickly pulled on his underwear. Relieved when he turned back around to see Malfoy still covering his eyes. He haphazardly pulled his trousers on and when he was about halfway done doing up his shirt he turned back around to Malfoy.

“Okay, you’re safe.” He chuckled, Malfoy took the hand off his eyes and watched Harry’s fingers working on the remaining buttons.

“Do you have anything I can eat, Potter?” Malfoy asked.

Harry thought through what was in his fridge: a pack of beer, and a loaf of bread. Maybe a few eggs if he was lucky.

“I don’t think so, but there’s a really good café across the street from us. They cook up a mean breakfast.” Harry offered, “Plus I have work at ten, so I can’t really be bothered to cook.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Good.” Harry replied, doing up the last button of his shirt.

-

The café was something Harry remembered existing back in 2004. He was happy to know that the small family business had managed to stay in business for so long.

Once they were both sat at the table, Malfoy settled on staring out of the window.

“Have you ever been here before?” Harry asked.

“How would I have?”

“This place is still around in 2004, I used to come here all the time with Ginny.” He explained. Malfoy brought his gaze away from the window.

“How is Ginny nowadays?”

Harry looked down to his fingers, luckily, they were interrupted by a young looking waitress. “What would you two like?”

Harry ordered a latte and English breakfast whilst Draco chose a black coffee with scrambled eggs and bacon.

Once she’d left, Malfoy presumed his digging.

“Ginny?” He prompted. Harry looked around himself, the thought of Ginny made a sickening guilt creep up his neck.

“She’s doing well. She just got back from her Quidditch world tour before I got here.”

“I heard she was doing well in the league.”

“She is a brilliant quidditch player, I’ll give her that.”

“Is she a match for me?” Draco asked, a smirk on his lips and one eyebrow raised.

“I don’t know, you two play different posts.” Harry reasoned. “I mean she’s a chaser, you’re a seeker. It’s different.”

“But what do you think is better? A chaser or a seeker.” Draco dug further; Harry rolled his eyes.

“I don’t think it matters.” He lied.

Harry much preferred the role of a seeker. He loved watching them during a match, they were always the deciding factor of a win or a loss, chasers always had lower stakes. Therefore, he loved the risk of playing seeker, but he wasn’t going to pet Draco’s ego with that information.

“What about Scorpius?” Harry asked, “How is he?”

Draco’s eyebrows furrowed as he stared in front of him.

“He’s brilliant.” Draco began, “Pansy says he’s a little version of me – just without being as spoiled.” He laughed, “I really miss him.”

The mood at the table suddenly dropped.

“Hopefully you’ll be back to him soon.”

“I hope so.”

The waitress came out with two cups of coffee followed by their food. Harry looked over it with excitement as his stomach rumbled like thunder.

“Hungry?” Draco laughed.

“Starved.”

Harry cut into his sausage, and piled beans, bacon, egg, mushroom, and ketchup on to his fork, hardly able to fit the bite into his mouth.

“You still eat exactly the same as you did in Hogwarts. Like a pig.” Harry took a second to chew before speaking up.

“And how do you know how I ate in Hogwarts?” He retorted; Malfoy had the decency to look caught out for second before he composed himself.

“I know for exactly the same reason you know what I had for breakfast every morning.”

_Two fried eggs, two strips of crispy bacon and water._

“Touché.”

Harry forked another massive mouthful of his breakfast into his mouth once again.

“What am I doing whilst you’re at work?” Malfoy asked. Harry covered his mouth with a hand whilst he spoke.

“You could come downstairs and watch with me. Or you could stay in my flat, I guess.”

Draco thought about it for a second. “I’ll come to work with you, seems more interesting than a few hours alone in your ridiculously small apartment.”

Harry agreed. “I’ll find something for you to do.”

“You better.”

-

They finished their meal and headed over to the barber shop where Harry introduced Draco to his working station.

“You’ve really never been to a muggle hairdresser?” Harry asked as Draco picked up a can of hair spray and sprayed it into the air, grimacing.

“I’ve never needed to before; hair spells work well enough.” He glared at his now sticky fingers. “I don’t see how they could be any better.”

“They really are, since learning to cut hair, I’ve actually managed to tame mine.” Draco glanced up to Harry’s head of hair.

“I suppose.”

Harry began setting up his station, moving the scissors and cans of gel and spray around until his first customer arrived and walked up to Stephanie to book.

“Go take a seat over there, Malfoy, you can watch if you’d like. Or you can go to the break room.”

Draco nodded and walked over to the plush seat in the corner of the room.

“Hello there, take a seat.” Harry introduced the customer, who currently housed an overgrown mullet. “What can I do for you today?” Harry asked, taking a step back and looking at his customer through the mirror, his eyes dipped slightly to the button-up floral shirt, which had a dangerous number of buttons undone, exposing half the man’s chest.

“Trim it down into the same style, just more defined.” Harry nodded and picked up his scissors, grabbing a section of the man’s hair, when he noticed a single fluorescent earring in his left ear.

“What’s your name, darling?” He spoke up, Harry made the first incision.

“Harry.”

“You look like a Harry.” He commented, a glint in his eyes.

“And what does a Harry look like?” Harry laughed.

“Hot.”

Harry mouth fell open in a laugh for a moment. A wide smile coated his face. “Am I wrong, or are you flirting with me?” He giggled, cutting a few more layers off the man’s head.

“You’re not wrong.”

Harry chuckled again.

“Compliments won’t get you a discount.” He joked; the man’s eyes wrinkled.

“It was worth a try.”

“What’s your name?” Harry asked.

“Christopher.”

“Well, Christopher, I am very flattered, but I have a girlfriend.” Christopher sighed.

“What a shame, all the good ones are always straight.”

Harry smiled fondly at the man, he looked through the reflection of the mirror to see Malfoy sat on his chair with his arms firmly crossed and a light red flush on his face. _What had gotten his knickers in a twist?_

“Do you want a drink, Christopher? We have water, juice, coffee-“

“A coffee sounds lovely.”

Harry turned around to Draco. As soon as he turned, Draco sprung up from his seat.

“Malfoy, can you make a coffee, quickly?”

Draco’s face fell.

“Oh, yeah. Okay.” He turned and walked into the break room.

“Who’s that?” Christopher asked.

“That’s Malfoy, he’s a mate. Why? Do you like the look of him?”

“Nah, he’s undeniably a bottom, can’t have two bottoms together.” Christopher explained, Harry spluttered.

“What’s a-“ Harry asked, even though he was ninety-percent sure he knew what a bottom was.

“It’s exactly what you think it is.”

“Oh.” Harry stuttered. “Malfoy’s not gay though?”

“Are you sure?” Christopher speculated.

“I mean, I’ve never asked.” Harry looked to where Draco had just left the room. “Why? Do you think he’s gay?”

“I can recognise one of my own.” He joked. “Can’t explain why, I can just feel it.”

Harry considered the idea that Malfoy was gay and ignored the tingles he felt up his spine as he continued to cut Christopher’s hair. After another minute of comfortable silence, Malfoy returned with a coffee.

“Here you go.” He offered passing the drink over to Christopher.

“Thanks.”

Christopher took a big sip of the coffee before immediately spitting it back out into the cup. “Ew, what the fuck!” He grimaced, “That’s disgusting.”

“What’s wrong?” Malfoy asked, an innocent expression on his face.

“Did you put salt in this?” He asked, passing the coffee cup back to Draco.

“Oh no! I must’ve mixed up the sugar and salt. I’m so sorry.” He apologised with a very over sympathetic voice.

“Malfoy, go and make him a new one!” Harry scolded. “How did you even mix them up, the only salt is in the shaker labelled salt? Which is on the opposite side of the kitchen to the sugar!”

“Sorry, Harry. It’s my first day.” He smiled before turning on his heel and leaving to the break room.

Harry moved back to Christopher.

“I’m so sorry about that, I’ll give you a bit of a discount if you want?”

“No, it’s fine.” Christopher replied, wiping his mouth before smiling up at Harry. “But that man is the furthest thing from straight I have ever seen.”

Harry furrowed his eyebrows.

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t worry, you’ll find out soon enough.”

-

“Well, what now?” Draco asked, lounging himself over the plush chair, one leg carelessly slung over the arm. “I’m bored.”

Harry had just finished with his last customer and was shutting up shop, he span the keys around on his finger.

“It’s only 4pm, got any ideas?”

“Hmmm.” Draco obnoxiously slung his arm onto the other seat. “How about we go get a drink. The leaky should still exist, right?”

“Yeah, that things been around for centuries.”

“Let’s go to the leaky then.”

“Really? We have to apparate all the way over there.” Harry complained.

“You have any better ideas?” Malfoy raised an eyebrow, Harry sighed and shrugged.

“It’d be nice to see a familiar place, I guess.”

“It’s decided! To the Leaky, we go.” Malfoy clapped his hands together, jumping up from his seat.

-

“It’s almost odd how little the Leaky has changed over 25 years, isn’t it?” Harry observed, sat opposite Malfoy on one of the bench tables.

“It’s nice to be back. I haven’t been able to visit since we were in school.” Malfoy frowned, Harry felt a pull at his chest.

“At least you came here when you had the chance.”

Malfoy took a gulp of his tea.

“Did you come here often?” He asked, Harry thought back to the amount of times he’d come in this pub. Just looking around the different tables, he could almost visualise it.

“Very. The butter beer here was a staple in my diet for a solid few years.”

Malfoy chuckled, then went silent.

“Do you hate me, Potter?” He asked, anxiety colouring his face.

“What? Of course I don’t hate you, Malfoy. Why would you ask that?” Relief dawned his face for a moment before a worried look returned.

“You did when we were younger.”

“No I didn’t.” Harry interrupted. “I never hated you.” Malfoy’s eyebrows furrowed.

“Yes you did. We were enemies.”

Harry let out a little laugh.

“My only enemy was Voldemort. You were just a mild inconvenience.” Harry waved his hand. Malfoy smiled for a second before looking back down to the table.

“Do you think we ever could’ve been friends?” He asked, unable to meet Harry’s eyes.

Harry paused his breath.

Malfoy and Harry as… friends? Friends… Harry thought back to their Hogwarts days and he couldn’t even imagine what his life would’ve been like had he have liked Malfoy. Realistically, they definitely never could be friends unless Malfoy had a complete personality change. But for some reason, Harry couldn’t bring himself to say no.

“Maybe.” He replied. Malfoy frowned down to the table, reaching for another sip from his cup.

“Sorry for asking stupid questions, Potter.” Malfoy still couldn’t meet Harry’s gaze.

“It’s not stupid…” Malfoy still didn’t look up. “Look… Maybe we couldn’t have been friends in Hogwarts, but why not now?”

“What do you mean?”

“How about we start over. Become friends.” Malfoy’s eyes finally left the table.

“Really?”

“Yeah… You’re all I have in this decade so we may as well be… friends.”

“That sounds nice… Harry.”

“That it does… Draco.”

A small smile adorned Draco’s face, whilst warm feeling settled in Harry’s. Suddenly, Draco’s eyes minutely shifted to the right, passed Harry’s head, and a far wider smile lit up his cheeks.

“Oh god! Look at that! Do you think that’s a young Molly Weasley?” Draco beamed, Pointing behind Harry to the queue.

Excitement bubbled up in Harry’s heart as a sudden missing of Molly struck him. He quickly turned around and the excitement in his heart plummeted into a stone cold lake.

“That’s not Mrs. Weasley.”

He could see why Malfoy would think it was. She had bright red hair, was about the same height and had a large smile across her lips.

“It bloody well looks like her! Are you sure!” Malfoy squinted towards the figure. Harry turned back around to face Malfoy. “Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I need to step outside for a moment.”

Harry lifted himself from his chair without explanation and made for a swift exit, swallowing down the flood of emotions polluting his chest.

“Harry?” Malfoy questioned, watching as Harry walked to the door.

His hands were shaking, he wasn’t even sure if he would make it outside. Not that he wanted to go outside… His heart was begging for him to run to the queue and hug the red-headed woman.

He wanted to say hello to a woman he hadn’t seen since he was a baby.

The woman who shared his eyes.

He wanted to hug his Mum.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lily Potter has entered the chat.
> 
> What we thinking?
> 
> See you next Saturday :)


	4. The Past Will Always Find You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for a two day late update, I've been swamped with work recently and whilst this chapter was written long ago, I didn't want to post without a final review, hence it is now Monday.
> 
> Sorry!

The cool air steadied Harry’s racing mind and shaking hands. _What the hell was happening to him?_ He could hardly breathe, his legs urged him to collapse to the floor and cry, but instead he rested his back against the wall, his eyes softly shut, head thumping.

“There you are!” He heard a voice shout across the wind. He didn’t open his eyes; it probably wasn’t addressed to him anyways. “Why are you outside? I asked you to grab a table for us?”

Harry kept his eyes shut, but the voice was getting closer to him at an alarming speed.

“James! Why are you ignoring me?” His eyes shot open, revealing the delicate face of Lily Potter. “Oh My God, I am so sorry!” She apologised, her hand covering a laugh. “I thought you were my husband!”

Harry needed to throw up. He showed her a queasy smile.

“That’s insane! You have to meet him! He looks exactly like you! The only difference is your eyes!” She examined, stepping closer to Harry in amazement.

“Lily? Why are you outside, I thought you were getting me a drink?” Harry almost doubled over with pain upon seeing his father step out of the building. “And who’s this?” He asked, speculatory eyes glazing over Harry’s face.

“Sorry, darling, I came out here because I thought this man was you!” She baffled.

“I don’t see it.” James playfully disagreed.

“Do you need a new pair of glasses? How can you not see how similar you look?” Lily’s smile filled her whole face as she turned back to Harry. “You see it, don’t you?”

Harry looked to his Dad, it felt like looking in a mirror.

“Not really, no.” He was surprised how clear his voice sounded.

Lily sighed, rolling her eyes, “Men.” She instantaneously went rigid as a knife before letting her shoulders relaxed again. “I’m sorry, this is rude. I haven’t even asked your name yet.”

“It’s Har…vey. Harvey.” Harry lied through a straight smile.

“Harvey! What a coincidence! We’re naming our son Harry!” She grinned, cradling her large stomach, James rested his hand intimately on her belly.

“I sure hope little Harry comes out even half as dashing as the bloke” James remarked, Lily rolled her eyes.

“You’re only saying that because he looks like you.” Her eyes widened. “Not that you aren’t a dashing bloke! I mean I think you’re … I’m going to stop talking.”

Harry smiled at her, feeling an undying urge to burst into tears.

“We can buy you a pint if you want?” James offered, “We’ve got a whole group, I’m sure we could spare a place.”

The offer tugged at Harry’s heart strings, he wanted to accept, he really did. But he knew he shouldn’t.

“Thanks, but I’m just waiting on my friend, he’s in the loo.”

“What a shame. It was nice to meet you, Harvey.” James held his hand out to shake, Harry gripped the tough skin with his own. Their hands were exactly the same, from the grubby, thick fingers to the size.

Harry looked to his left to see Draco standing by the door with a small smile.

“Oh my God.” Lily said, once again. “As if seeing your doppelganger today wasn’t enough. We’ve found one for Lucius too!”

James grimaced. “I thought I’d never have to see his face again.”

“Hi. I’m Tom.” Draco introduced.

“Nice to meet you.” Lily beamed. “Hopefully, I’ll stumble into you two some other time. Have a good night!” She left, turning into the door of the Leaky, James following swiftly behind.

Harry collapsed against the wall behind him, a pounding headache blanking out all of his senses. After a second, he realised Malfoy was talking to him. He squinted his eyes at the blond in an attempt to make out the words.

Something about… home… and sleep.

“Sorry, what did you say?” Harry asked through misty eyes.

Draco cast a sad sigh, “I said, do you want to go home? It’s late, you could use some sleep.”

Harry faintly nodded. “Yes. That would be nice.”

He rested his head back against the brick, half tempted to smash it against the wall, or maybe collapse onto the ground, or just burst into tears. Maybe some other time he would have, but not in front of Malfoy. Whether they had called a truce and began a friendship or not, Harry would think twice about crying in front of Ginny, let alone Draco.

Ginny… Another stake shot through Harry’s heart, as if seeing his late parents wasn’t enough. He felt so guilty about everything and his head was swimming. He felt drunk with it, his head racing but empty simultaneously. He took a deep breath.

“Harry?” Draco’s voice whispered. “Do you want me to side-along you? I don’t think you should apparate like this.”

_Oh yeah… they were going home… That’d be nice._

Harry held out his arm and without a second’s notice Draco wrapped his own around Harry’s, apparating them back to the flat.

-

“I’ll take a shower. Leave you alone for a few minutes.” Draco announced, turning towards the bathroom and grabbing his night clothes.

“Okay.” Harry sighed, watching his slim form leave the room.

He didn’t know why seeing Lily and James had hurt him so much, he should’ve been happy to see them. He should’ve accepted the drink and had a meal with them. He could’ve stayed here and been friends with the parents he missed out on.

He stirred the tea Draco made him. No, he couldn’t. He would either leave here and miss them twice as much as if he’d never met them, or he would end up staying in this timeline and losing them again. He might even do something stupid and change the timeline of the entire universe. His head was thumping.

The past three years, there’d never been a point where he’d truly wished he’d never time-leapt back. There were definitely times where it was more difficult, but he’d never regretted what had happened, but just seeing Lily’s face had ripped a crack in his heart so deep that he knew he could never forget.

The pressure in his head was building and building, it had been since they’d left the Leaky. It was insufferable.

He sipped his tea.

He knew he should cry. It would get rid of the pain, release the pressure like a needle to a balloon. But he couldn’t, not with Draco here. He hadn’t cried once since the war and he wasn’t going to start now. However, his plan was counterproductive, with every thought he had of not crying, the urge to let the tears drop built more and more, until, against his own will, one solitary tear fell.

He wiped it quickly, swallowed the lump in his throat and pretended it hadn’t happened. Then it’s twin fell from the other eye just as quickly. His hands caught it, not letting the water last in the air for even a moment. But then another fell, and another, and another until his hands couldn’t possibly catch them all at once.

Now he was wiping them away with his arms, feeling his face heat up in a painful blister. The sound of the shower shutting off set a pause to the tears. Harry tried to compose himself before Malfoy left the bathroom, but he knew his face was red, his eyes blood shot and his hair mussed.

Draco came out of the bathroom, opening the door slowly.

“You’re out of-“ He paused upon seeing Harry’s face. “Shampoo.”

Harry braced himself, he prepared witty retorts to the insults, put a brave front on above his vulnerable state and looked directly into Draco’s eyes. Even if Draco had said they were friends, he knew Draco wouldn’t be able to help himself. He would make fun of Harry’s tears, just like when they were young.

“What?” Harry grunted; his eyes wet.

Draco looked just as vulnerable as Harry felt in that moment. He took three steps closer to Harry and turned to sit next to him on the bed.

“It’s okay to cry.” Draco whispered, wrapping both his arms around Harry’s neck, and pulling him into his shoulder.

There were no insults or cutting comments. _Malfoy was trying to comfort him._

And it worked. Harry leaned into his embrace and felt a tear fall from his eyes into Draco’s shirt. He must’ve felt it, but still, no comments. Harry let a few more fall, the pressure in his head eased with each tear until his eyes were set on full flood gates into Draco’s shoulder.

Draco’s hand ran comforting laps up and down Harry’s back as he whispered “shhh… it’s okay.” Into his ear. His sobs were violent now, his back shaking with the magnitude, but Draco stayed steady as a rock.

“It’s okay, Harry. You can talk to me about it if you want.”

Harry pulled back, sniffles pulling from his chest in little gasps, whilst his head felt clearer than before, he still had a subtle headache, and his lungs were gasping for air. And he was embarrassed. He’d cried in front of Draco, like a baby. The previous pain in his head was nothing compared to the heat in his cheeks.

_Idiot._

He almost burst into another round of tears upon seeing Draco’s face, kind and comforting. Oh Merlin, he felt like a toddler who’d grazed their knee. 

“Do you want another hug?” Malfoy asked, Harry wanted to punch himself.

“I think I just want to sleep off my headache.”

“Okay” Draco agreed.

Harry got changed quickly, this time Draco didn’t say anything about Harry changing in the same room as him, but he did turn around and look at the wall.

Once Harry was under the covers with the lights off and Malfoy’s warm presence next to him, the aches in his body had finally eased.

Maybe it wasn’t too bad. He still cringed upon seeing Draco’s tear stained shirt, but hopefully Draco would let Harry forget all about this night. They’d never have to talk about it again.

He should probably thank him.

Harry looked over to Draco through squinted eyes, the man was calmly looking up to the ceiling, his hands rested on his chest. As if he could feel Harry’s eyes observing him, his face turned to Harry.

“Thanks… Draco.”

The man’s lips cast a slight smile.

“It’s okay, Harry.”

-

The bed was so warm when he shared it with Draco. He hadn’t shared a bed with someone in three years, and whilst things with Ginny hadn’t been perfect, sharing a bed had always been Harry’s favourite part of their relationship. The warmth and comfort of having someone next to you, it was the only time where Harry could sleep the whole night.

Draco hadn’t woken up yet, and Harry couldn’t bring himself to wake the blond. Their legs had gotten wrapped up together during the night, and whilst Harry should definitely take his legs away, feeling another person’s bare skin against his own was… nice.

He watched Draco’s face, his pale complexion and golden eyelashes. They had made Draco’s eyes look creepy and suspicious when they were younger but now that Harry had looked at them enough, they seemed like a prestigious golden frame around an ocean, no longy the wiry hair around stony eyes.

Draco’s eyelashes fluttered as he woke up, he sluggishly looked over to Harry and watched him for a second.

“You feeling better?” He asked. Harry nodded. He bit his lip.

“Thanks for being here… last night.” Draco smiled and looked up to the ceiling. “How’d you know what to do?”

“I have had a baby, Harry; you learn a thing or two about comfort.” Draco’s smile quickly wilted. “I miss Scorpio… A lot.”

Harry’s eyes widened at the openness of Draco’s statement.

“He’s one of the only things I truly love.” He sighed, “I would give anything to see him right now.”

This time it was Harry’s turn to comfort, he wrapped his legs tighter around Draco and lifted one finger to stroke the hair out of his eyes.

Draco turned to look at him, a small gasp on his mouth.

“We’ll find a way back.”

“We?” Draco asked. “I thought you were staying here?”

“I was but… I’ve been thinking.” Harry admitted, he took a breath and slowly let it go, “I hadn’t really thought about how this whole other timeline would work and… After seeing my parents yesterday… I don’t think I could stay here, knowing they were just down the road from me. And if I stayed here, I’d have to watch them die another time, relive the war… Everything terrible that had ever happened to me would happen again.”

Draco looked at him with sympathetic eyes.

“Good.”

“Good?”

“I think, no matter how annoying you can be, I’d really miss you if I left alone.” Harry’s heart warmed. “Also, everyone back in two-thousand-and-four would definitely think I’d murdered you if I went back alone, I mean it looks pretty suspect anyways.” 

Harry snorted, “You got that right.”

“What are we doing today then?” Malfoy asked, after a moment.

“What would you like to do?”

“I have no idea what there is to do.”

“Well, I’m at work until six, but after that we could definitely do something.”

“You’re at work till six! What the hell am I supposed to do till then?” Draco complained.

“You could come with me to work, like the other day.”

“I’m not doing that again.” Draco shivered.

“Go out then, find something else to do… Do you like roller blading?”

“What’s roller blading?”

“You haven’t lived, Malfoy.” Harry muttered, “It’s a muggle form of entertainment I guess, they put little wheels on your shoes, and you go around in an arena type thing with music in the background.”

“Muggles are weird.”

“Trust me, it’s fun.”

“Okay. I’ll busy myself until six and then we can go roller blading or whatever.”

Harry smiled.

“I better go get dressed.” Draco announced.

“Good idea.”

Draco’s eyes met Harry, and Harry almost choked at the sight. How had he never seen how pretty Draco’s eyes are before? Draco chuckled.

“Can you please unwrap your legs from me, Harold.”

“Oh god, yeah of course.” Harry blushed as he hurriedly pulled his legs away from Malfoy’s, immediately missing the warmth. He should probably also get dressed and ready for work. _Probably._

-

Work was just as tiring and mundane as it always was, but today Harry had a slight spring in his step, Stephanie – the receptionist – even told him “Someone looks like they’ve finally pulled the stick out of their arse.”

To which Harry didn’t bat an eyelid at. He was going to go out with Malfoy tonight.

He couldn’t help but feel the excitement bubble up in his belly, which he did think was a little odd as he didn’t ever get this excited when him and Ron did anything. The only time he’d ever felt this happy was when him and Ginny had first started dating.

Maybe he was simply happy to have a _friend_ , a good _friend_. Which was what Draco was, a good _friend_. Harry smiled and perhaps went a bit scissor heavy on his last client, but it was five-fifty-five for god’s sake. This guy had cheek coming in at five-forty-five, and whilst normally Harry wouldn’t mind, he was bouncing to get back to Draco.

“Ouch.” The client squealed when Harry nipped a small portion of his ear.

“Oh My God, Harry! What is up with you today?” Stephanie walked around her desk and strutted up to the bundle up nerves that Harry was. She snatched the scissors from his hands.

“Go do whatever you’re so excited about. I’ll cut this guy’s hair.” She lifted a section of his hair and cut it with a loud snip.

“But you’re a receptionist?”

“That sounds like a me problem.”

Harry shrugged but decided to shut his mouth before she changed her mind and rushed out of the barber shop to his apartment. He might even get there at exactly six.

-

He calmed himself just before he opened the door, putting on a nonchalant persona. He calmly opened the door with a muttered “Hey Draco, we can go to the roller disco in like twenty minutes if you want.”

But he soon realised he was saying it to an empty room.

“Draco?” He shouted, “Dracooooooo!”

No reply.

_Hmm. Where could he be?_

_Had he ditched him?_ Harry frowned _. No, who would he ditch him for? What did Malfoy even say he was going to do today._

_Oh god! He said he was going to go out and explore by himself! Harry hadn’t checked up on him since ten am! Anything could’ve happened by now! He could’ve gotten lost and stranded or kidnapped or murdered. Oh God what if he was lying in a ditch somewhere?_

Harry let out and audible squeal. _He had to go help Malfoy! He could be dead! Actually, he probably is dead._

Panic filled Harry’s head and he rushed to the door, ready to go save Draco, but the second he opened it, there was Draco’s tall figure, stood behind the wood.

“Woah, Harry! What’s the rush?” He asked, wind ruffling his hair back.

Okay, maybe Harry had overreacted by just a bit.

“I was just getting a bit warm really. Thought the room needed a bit of fresh air.” He played off casually.

“So, you opened the door?”

“Yes.”

“And not a window.”

“…No.”

“How you ever defeated the Dark Lord amazes me, Potter.”

Draco shook his head and stepped around Harry into the flat.

“Close that door, could you? It’s a bit cold in here.” Draco requested.

Cheeky git.

“Why were you outside anyways?” Harry asked to which Draco turned around to show Harry a box filled with some form of pastries.

“I went down to this new café about a mile away and got us some pastries for before we leave. I could practically smell the café down the other end of the street. I couldn’t help myself.”

Harry smiled and plucked one spherical pastry out of the box. It seemed to be some sort of cinnamonney-cream concoction. He popped it into his mouth and the warm sweet taste of a cinnamon puff exploded on his tongue.

“Wow, those are amazing!” He practically moaned, reaching in the box for a second.

“Aren’t they!” Draco smiled, offering the box further forward to Harry.

It was only then that Harry noticed what Draco was wearing. He was dressed surprisingly casual for Malfoy, a pair of loose dad jeans sat around his hips, above them was a tucked in white button up top, that had three strategically undone buttons at the top. Above both was a long black coat, made of brushed cotton with large black buttons in the centre. His hair was styled immaculately atop his head, more casually messy than Harry had ever seen before. It fell to his ears with a few stray hairs falling on his forehead.

“You look… nice.” Harry complemented before he could keep his mouth shut.

“Wow, you are really great at complements, Potter.” Draco smiled. “But thanks, Dad sent a bit of money to us for the next two or so days, he’s arranging with Gringotts for us to have access to the family vault but apparently processing takes a few days. So, I thought I’d go shopping with some of the money.” Draco beamed, straightening the corners of his coat.

“I’d better get dressed quickly, then we can go skating, yeah?”

“Don’t get too ahead of yourself Harry!” Draco turned back around to the bed; Harry was suddenly aware of what must’ve been ten bags of shopping on there.

“I bought you something to wear!” Draco thrust a bag into Harry’s arms.

“How’d you know what size I am?” Harry asked.

“I have a gift; I can just look at people and know.”

“Really?”

“No. I looked in your wardrobe.”

“Oh.”

“Now, go get dressed and we’ll get going!”

-

The wind was sharp on Harry’s face, turning his cheeks a deep red. He wished he could wear something a bit warmer than what Malfoy had bought him, but he didn’t want to turn down the clothes Draco had specially selected for him.

They were quite nice, he supposed, a dark leather jacket with dark jeans with a button up top. Not too different to what he normally wore to work, but Draco insisted they were “completely different to your work clothes” and that Harry just didn’t “Have an eye for fashion.” 

Something about the cut being more complementary and blah blah blah… He stopped listening after that.

Luckily, the skate rink wasn’t a long walk away anyways, so he could bear the cold.

Once they were inside, his veins rapidly began to heat up in the warmth of the rink. The number of moving bodies in here would be enough to warm the place up alone.

Music was blasting through the speakers, he mildly recognised the tune as Elton John, and lights span madly around the skate floor.

“This is not what I was expecting.” Draco announced, casting speculatory eyes at the people on skates, “Is it meant to be like ice skating.”

“It is a bit.”

“I imagine I will be rather good at this then.”

After renting their skates, Draco was quick to put them on, Harry could sense the excitement from him, even if he were trying to play off.

“Woah!” Draco immediately screeched upon standing up, his weight hurled forward, and whilst he didn’t fall over, he was stuck in a forward crouching position with his arms chucked out wildly around him.

He had a mad smile on his face, and it made Harry breathless for a second, a single strand of blond hair falling in front of gleeful eyes.

“Did you see that! I almost died!” Malfoy screeched through a smile, slowly lifting himself back up to an upright position.

“You might be exaggerating a little, Draco.”

“Nope. Almost died.”

Harry rolled his eyes in content before finally finishing tying his skates.

“Well, are you going to help me to the floor or sit around tying your laces all day?” Draco proposed, his arms folded in a cheeky stance, one hip popped out.

“Can you not get there on your own?” Harry asked, watching Draco huff out.

“Obviously, I can get there on my own, I just thought you might need my help to get over there.” Draco justified, offering his hand out for Harry to grip onto. Harry snickered at the small stumble Draco made just to unfold his hand.

“I think I’ll be fine.”

The Gryffindor pushed himself up from the bench and promptly skated onto the rink floor. He’d been skating a ton of times with Ginny, although, he remembered how difficult he had found it when he’d first tried, and how Ginny had watched him flounder about trying to get to the skating floor.

“Of course you can skate.” Draco tutted.

“Come on then!” Harry shouted over to Malfoy.

The blond made a disgruntled sigh before attempting to move again, within one step he had completely lost his balance, hitting the floor with a loud thud.

“You okay, Draco?”

“Shut up, Potter.”

Draco evaluated his position on the floor before meeting Harry’s eyes.

“I think I may need just a little help. It is my first time after all.”

Harry smiled and skated over, offering Draco his hand to take.

“M’lady.” Harry tipped his head as Draco gripped onto his hand. Draco giggled (yes, giggled) and jumped up with the help of Harry’s hand.

The two haphazardly skated towards the wooden floor, Harry a bit more gracefully that Malfoy.

Once they were on the slippery wood of the rink, Malfoy chucked one arm out for balance and instinctively threw the other over Harry’s shoulder, gripping his bicep for dear life.

“Woah, Draco!” Harry’s hands made themselves around Draco’s waist to steady him. Once Draco was steady, he realised he still hadn’t lifted his hands from the man’s waist, and for some reason, he didn’t want to.

“This is a bit harder than I thought it would be.” Draco’s fingers were digging into Harry’s shoulder, he wouldn’t be surprised if he had five little bruises on his shoulder tomorrow morning.

The two shuffled towards the bar at the edge of the floor, which Draco clung onto. The blond awkwardly rotated, gripping onto the bar like his life depended on it, until his back was facing the bar and he had his elbows wrapped around the metal.

Harry smiled when Draco’s skates slipped from beneath him, pulling his body away from the bar at a 45 degree angle. He slowly wheeled himself back up.

“I knew you hadn’t skated before, but I didn’t think you’d be quite this bad.” Harry teased – but he lied - he was just as bad as Malfoy when he had first skated. He couldn’t recall letting go of the support bar the entire time.

“Oh, I’m sorry to disappoint you, my saviour.” Draco jested, “If you think you’re so good then show me something impressive.”

Harry cocked an eyebrow.

“I’ll stay here. You go show me something.” Draco gripped tighter onto the bar, his skates slipping from beneath him another time, but he was far quicker to recover this time round.

Harry laughed and skated backwards for a metre (if he were honest, he couldn’t do much more than that).

“I’m so impressed.” Draco rolled his eyes. “I said show me something impressive, Harry.”

“I’m not some kind of professional,” He skated smoothly back to Malfoy, “But if you compare the two of us, I’m sure I look like one.”

The song changed to a beat Harry had heard a thousand times.

“Oh Merlin, I love this song!” He announced to Draco’s blank face, Draco lifted an eyebrow in return. “Don’t tell me you don’t know this song?”

“I don’t entertain myself with muggle pastimes.”

“Well, aren’t you boring.” Harry slowly drifted backwards away from Draco, expressively lip syncing along to ‘Do you remember,’ he waved his hands in finger guns ‘…the twenty-first night of September!”

“Wait!” Draco chortled, “Where are you going?”

“To enjoy myself, you can either stay here or come with me.”

“I can’t get a metre away from this bar without collapsing.”

“I’ll help you.”

Harry skated closer and took a deep breath as he wrapped one arm around the man’s waist.

“What are you doing?”

“Helping you.” Once Harry’s arm was tightly in place, Draco timidly rested his hand on Harry’s shoulder, leaving the other to hold onto the bar.

“Let go. I’ll walk you.” Draco shot Harry a doubting glance before finally letting go of the bar, his weight immediately tossed onto Harry, tightening his hold on the man. “That’s more like it.” Harry complimented, rubbing his hand lightly on Draco’s wrist in a comforting gesture.

Draco had a light blush covering his face, Harry thought he suited bashfulness.

“Well… Are we just going to stand here?”

Harry was kicked out of whatever daze he was stuck in and skated along with Draco in his arms, the blond’s grip getting tighter with every move.

Draco’s brow was focused, but his smile was wide as ever. Nearing the last chorus of the song he was able to take some of his weight on his own legs. Harry loosened his hold, only for Malfoy’s legs to go wild and floppy, reverting them back into their previous position.

Harry let out a booming laugh, and Draco timidly joined in.

“You’re getting better.” Harry complimented, letting his hand slip further from Draco’s waist to his hip. He felt the blond bristle.

He didn’t know why he’d let his hand fall, but his head was suddenly filled with thoughts of how toned Draco’s hip was.

_Wait, what?_

_God, not having a shag in three years had really gotten to Harry’s head._ He really shouldn’t be thinking about the man’s toned hip of all things.

He lifted his hand back up to Draco’s waist, but the movements unsettled the Slytherin. Draco’s intake of breath had thrown their balance, chucking them both to the floor.

Draco had collapsed fastest and to avoid crushing the man, Harry had landed in a push up position with the blond rested below him, their torsos above one another.

“Shit! Sorry Draco.”

“No, it was my fault.” Draco moved swiftly beneath Harry, noticing their position and panicking, he shot up, forcefully bashing his forehead directly into Harry’s.

“Fuck!” They screamed in unison, clutching their foreheads in pain. Harry collapsed down onto Draco, making the man squeak out like a dog toy. He swiftly rolled off him onto the floor.

“Sorry! Sorry!” Draco squealed, pushing himself up onto his hands, he grimaced and clutched his forehead again. “Are you okay?”

Harry paused his painful rolling and looked up to Draco, the worry on the blond’s face seemed like the funniest thing Harry had ever seen. He couldn’t help his laugh from escaping.

His laugh built until he was full on snorting and clutching his stomach in pain, he absently noticed that Draco was doing the same, the both of them spread out on the floor in hysterics. Harry hooted on an exhale of breath, wiping away tears.

“Oh My God, that is the funniest thing-“ Harry could hardly talk between his laughs. Draco’s hand slapped onto Harry’s knee in amusement, smacking his knee over and over again. Draco’s eyes were also filled with tears.

“Oh Merlin, my stomach hurts!” He screeched using his other hand to clench his stomach.

Slowly, their laughter died out until they were both sat on the wood floor, only mildly aware of the other skaters around them.

“Shall we try again? But no falling over this time.” Harry suggested, placing his own hand on top of the one Draco had rested on his knee. Draco only seemed to become aware of where his hand was in that moment.

“Yeah,” a shy smile casted Draco’s lips, “Let’s try again.”

-

The sky was dark as coal by the time the two left the skate rink, a waft of cold air chilling them to their bones.

“What now?” Draco asked.

“How about we go to that diner up the street?”

“Diner?”

“Can you see it,” Harry stepped in close to Draco and lifted his finger up to the distance, where a large square building sat, with fluorescent pink and orange neon lights, illuminating a sign saying ‘Crispy John’s Diner’ . “Just over there.”

“I walked past there this morning. The burgers were almost grotesque they were so big.”

“Is that a yes?”

“Absolutely”

The two walked towards the diner, the cold of night not affecting their rose blossomed cheeks. Harry felt just as warm as ever.

Soon enough they were in the diner and had been seated on a both adjacent to the large window. On the table were a set of salt, pepper, and maple syrup.

“It smells amazing in here.” Harry commented.

“It smells like diabetes.” Harry cocked an eyebrow at Draco’s pessimism. “In a good way.”

“What do you want then?” Harry asked, opening up the large menu rested in front of him, Draco did the same.

His stomach rumbled just reading the names of the various desserts, each sounding more like heart attack central than the last.

“Look at the waffles.” Draco prompted, “They’re huge!”

Harry’s eye’s flicked down to the sweet treat, and Draco wasn’t wrong. They appeared to be bigger than Harry’s hand, and there were four of them per plate. Four! His stomach let out a groan.

“Hungry?” Draco joked, noticing the constant groans coming from Harry’s belly.

“I haven’t eaten since one, I’m starving.”

“What will you two boys be having?” A waitress asked, she had light brown hair and a heavy New York accent.

“I’ll have the Blueberry Blizzard Waffle with extra cream, please.” Draco ordered, “With a strawberry milkshake.”

“Good choice, darlin’. How about you?”

“I’ll have the Treacle Temptation Tart, please.”

The waitress wished them a good night before turning away with a wink.

“Still obsessed with Treacle Tart, eh?” Draco asked, fiddling with the maple jar.

Harry flexed his brow.

“What?”

The Slytherin rolled his eyes.

“In Hogwarts, you always used to have treacle tart.” He explained, his cheeks tinting a tone. “I think, I don’t know, that was probably Seamus, I probably just made that up.”

“No, I had treacle tart almost every night.” Harry smiled again. “So, you know that I eat like a pig, but also you also know my dessert order.”

“I mean, I know other peoples as well.”

“Like who?”

Draco leaned back against the booth, letting go of the syrup and crossing his arms. A small grin on his lips.

“Fine, maybe I only noticed what you had for dessert.”

For some reason, Harry’s stomach tied itself in knots at the statement. Draco had remembered Harry’s favourite dessert. It was probably because he hated him. That was probably it.

“I suppose I am extremely interesting.”

“Oh shut it, Potter.”

As if to punctuate Malfoy’s sentence, their desserts arrived, along with the waitress, who blew Harry a kiss before returning to the kitchen.

“Merlin, those waffles are bigger then I thought!” Harry awed at the blueberry covered dessert. Draco wasn’t looking at the waffles though, he was casting a peculiar glare in the direction of the kitchen. “Earth to Draco.”

Malfoy suddenly looked back to his plate where he too gawked at the size of the food.

“We may as well be in America with portions this big.” Draco daintily picked up his spoon and scraped up a small coating of whipped cream, bringing the sweet to his lips and sucking on the metal.

Harry had to cast his eyes away as Draco did, an overwhelming tingle in his low stomach built up at the sight of Draco’s red lips wrapped around the spoon.

“How’s your tart?” Draco asked, a small dab of cream on the corner of his lips. He licked it away with a flick of his tongue.

Harry let out a deep breath before reaching for his spoon and piling up a mouthful of treacle tart.

He was not going to look at Malfoy. He could not look at Malfoy and he would not look at Malfoy. That way he would not get distracted by the man’s stupidly red lips.

“Harry?”

Harry looked up at Malfoy to the blond looking at him with an inquisitive stare. “You okay?”

“Yes of course.” Harry shoved the spoonful of tart into his mouth and moaned at the taste. It tasted just like the one he used to have back at Hogwarts. “This is amazing.” HE explained to Malfoy, who was slowly picking away at his obscenely large waffle.

“It looks nice.”

Harry brought another spoonful to his mouth and closed his eyes in bliss. The tart was sweet, and the syrup added a warm spicy coating to the pastry whilst the scoop of ice cream contrasted the two with a creamy cold.

“Oh my God!” Harry exclaimed. “We have to come here again.”

Draco kept his eyes down at his waffle, but Harry could see a small smile on the blond’s lips.

When Draco lifted his eyes to meet Harry’s, Harry was almost taken aback by how dilated the man’s pupils were, his eyes almost looked black.

He lifted the spoon to his lips and flicked his tongue out to wipe the cream off the end, swivelling his tongue around the metal, his eyes not leaving Harry’s face. He pushed the spoon into his mouth and sucked off what his tongue couldn’t get off and Harry suddenly realised he hadn’t taken a breath in the last thirty seconds.

He studiously kept his eyes down onto his tart whilst he finished the rest of the meal, adamant to not look back up to Draco. He couldn’t stop his leg from bouncing.

“That was delicious. I’ll pay.” Draco announced once Harry had finished his tart.

“No!” Harry debated in a typical Gryffindor fashion. “I’ll pay, it’s fine. My treat.”

Draco grinned.

“I appreciate the offer but considering my father did just send me a rather substantial amount of money, I think it’s best that I get the bill.”

“Sure, but I’ll pay next time.” Harry settled, if Lucius was technically paying for the meal, then he would let him.

-

The two burst through the door to Harry’s apartment jovially, on their way back home, they’d stopped off at a muggle off-licence and bought an ample amount of alcohol.

“The night shall never end!” Draco shouted, slamming the door behind himself, he dug a bottle of champagne out of a brown bag and immediately set to pulling the cork out of the top.

Harry covered his ears as the cork flew out of the bottle, bashing up into the ceiling before colliding with the floor.

“Whoops.” Draco muttered, before noticing that the champagne had began to shoot out of the top of the bottle along with the cork.

He wrapped his lips around the brim of the bottle, trying to avoid the champagne soaking the floor completely.

To Harry’s surprise, Draco didn’t choke or splutter around the champagne bottle. He seemed to be able to drink back the explosive top of the bottle with no problem.

Once the champagne bottle had died down a bit, Draco pulled back away, “Ugh, it went up my nose.” He grimaced.

“You’re good at that.”

“Experience.” Draco laughed, pulling two mugs from Harry’s cupboard. “Do you have anything fancier than tea mugs, Harry?”

“Nope.”

“Of course you don’t.”

Draco rolled his eyes and poured the expensive alcohol into two mugs.

He picked them both up and passed one over to Harry.

“To a wonderful night.” Draco lifted his mug.

Harry lifted his own mug and clinked it against Draco’s.

“To a wonderful night.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cute
> 
> What we think, how we feelin?


End file.
